Electrical connectors are widely used in the electronics industry for transmitting power and data between semiconductors chips and Printed Circuit Board (PCB). Most of the connectors use a tongue and groove assembly where the female receptacle inside a suitable casing is flexible and stretches to accommodate a male connector part to maximize contact area and secure the male contact such that a reasonable force is required to separate the male and female connector to prevent accidental disconnection.
With rapid miniaturization of printed circuit boards and semiconductor chips, there has been a drive for miniaturization of the electrical connectors that are placed on the printed circuit board with either a through hole configuration or are surface mounted on the PCB to transfer electrical power or signals from metal conductors on the PCB to the outside world and vice-a-versa or between PCBs. Most of the concentration on miniaturization of the electrical connector has been on reducing the lateral dimensions of the electrical connectors along the plane of the PCB surface, to minimize its footprint on the surface of the PCB, rather than on the miniaturization of the thickness of the connectors in the direction of the thickness of the PCB. New and alternative designs are needed that allow for thinning of connectors to the limits of material strength. Such thinning would allow for embedding connectors inside PCBs freeing up space on top of the PCB for other components and circuits and streamlining design of PCBs.